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Many of our student readers have recently finished up Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) this last fall or winter. Likewise, many students are also beginning their first unit of CPE this Spring as well. To that end, we'd like to share some key reminders.

After you’ve been accepted to a program, here is how you register and pay for it:

As soon as you know where you will be doing CPE, send Contextual Learning a copy of your acceptance paperwork. Be sure it includes information about the site, …

Last month I lifted up the important leadership competency of engaging people in God’s mission. The month prior, we focused on the importance of vision and vision casting as a leader. This month, we dig into the nitty gritty of ministry on the front lines: making gatherings memorable. What does it take for you to host a gathering – whether a bible study, a preaching event, or a confirmation lesson?

The most direct answer may be the following: prayer, planning, preparation, execution, …

Star Wars is a part of my story, beginning in a galaxy far, far away when I was in high school, and has continued into later chapters of my life as I got married and had kids. Today I have the good fortune of living with family members who embrace Star Wars, and as such have learned enough to potentially answer through the $400 round if I was on Jeopardy. Yoda’s words, “Much to learn, you still have,” would apply to my depth of knowledge, but I do see the value in this epic tale, …

“There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Letter from a Birmingham Jail)[1]

Days after the Jamar Clark shooting, my heart was aching as my city was boiling over with racial …

For a fun surprise in this month's Ministry in Context, we wanted to share some good news from some of our current Luther Seminary pastoral interns. Please enjoy these small stories of joy, and please keep all of our internship teams in your hearts.

Thank you to all interns and supervisors who have already completed the CIP, Learning Goals, Three-Month Evaluations, and/or the Project Proposal. Thank you also to the interns and supervisors who have engaged in check-in conversations with us here at Contextual Learning. These are very important steps along the internship process. As we move into the new year, we would like to remind interns, supervisors, and committees of an important update. Mid-Point Evaluations are now available!

Are a current Luther Seminary intern with some questions about your transcript? Because we have had some inquiries about this, we wanted to send a short reminder regarding grading policies for internship.

For students taking internship for credit: An NR (not reported) has been posted to your record for the fall semester. The same will be true for the spring semester, if you are not completing internship until the end of the summer. Once your internship has ended and all paperwork …

Are you part of an internship team in Region 1 or Region 3? If so, your cluster meeting is facilitated by the Contextual Learning team here at Luther. We are so looking forward to our spring cluster meetings! We would like you to save the following dates on your calendars.

Last month I highlighted the importance of vision casting for any given community. If that were ministry in a nutshell, we would focus on vision casting alone, get the word out there, and hope that everything falls into place, right? Well, actually, not so fast! Vision for mission and ministry in the Christian church is uniquely and necessarily caught up in the incarnation, "God with us." God chose to touch the ground through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We too, are called to engage …

Are you familiar with the names Chip and Joanna? If you recognize the names, then you know all about “shiplap”. Thanks to the current “DIY-Do It Yourself” movement in our culture, HGTV’s Fixer-Upper hosts, Chip and Joanna Gaines, have introduced us to shiplap, a rough sawn pine paneling found in historic homes. Shiplap is a favorite construction element for Chip and Joanna as they travel the process of imagining new possibilities for an existing home in an established …